Patient diagnostic services save lives, they reduce the time to treatment for the patient and provide valuable insight for targeted treatment. In many developed countries, modern medical facilities can provide patients with the most advanced diagnostic services allowing patients to be efficiently and effectively treated. In less developed countries or regions, high quality medical facilities and diagnostic services can be lacking, often due to economic and infrastructure considerations. In many less developed countries, the economy cannot afford the latest in medical technology and infrastructure, such as a robust power grid or highly trained clinicians, required to support the high demands of modern medical technology. Sadly, a large portion of the world's population resides in underserved or developed areas where the lack of efficient and effective diagnostic services critically impacts the population mortality and overall health. This lack of medical care can lead or contribute to knock-on effects, such as low economic and education development, which can further hamper the populace.
Less developed countries and areas lack significant diagnostic services that could shorten treatment and increase the living standard of the population. Many of the diseases and conditions the populations of less developed countries and areas face have largely been extinguished in developed countries, which means the treatment exists, may be plentiful, and may be, in some cases, relatively low cost for these diseases and conditions. The component that is lacking is the diagnostic services to diagnose members of the population effectively and efficiently so that they can receive prompt, timely treatment, which minimizes the impact of the disease or condition on the patient and the population.
Often, many less developed countries and areas also lack the educational development that is typically required to perform the necessary diagnostic services. This can lead to inconclusive or erroneous results from diagnostic services or to significant delays in diagnosis as the diagnostic services are required to be performed in another location that has the requisite infrastructure and/or knowledge to perform the diagnostic service. For patients, this can mean further delays in treatment, which can decrease their chances of survival, increase the spread of the disease, and/or lead to increased debilitation caused by the disease or condition.
One of the common diseases effecting less developed countries and areas is malaria, a disease caused by a mosquito-borne parasite, plasmodium. Malaria infects many people each year, disproportionately in less developed countries and areas than developed ones. Malaria, if identified at an early stage of the infection, can be easily treated with relatively low cost treatment plans, but without early diagnosis, the disease causes great harm to individual patients, it quickly spreads among a population, and later-stage treatment is often costly and less effective. The populations most effected by malaria are vulnerable and do not have good access to quality and timely diagnostic services. Further, the malaria disease is very treatable if timely detected or diagnosed, however, the diagnostic services needed are often not readily and/or easily available in the countries and areas in which malaria is endemic.
Many countries effected by malaria and many humanitarian aid groups have directed resources and technology to malaria control and reducing and managing the disease and others like it. These resources and technology attack malaria on two fronts, the control of mosquitoes and the treatment and diagnosis of the disease. The current gold standard diagnostic services used to diagnose malaria, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based tests, are expensive and require sophisticated laboratory analysis, and point-of-care blood films (light microscopy) and antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) lack the necessary sensitivity and speed to provide the necessary information to optimally treat malaria.
A low-cost, accurate, point-of-care in vitro diagnostic service or device that can effectively and efficiently diagnose biologic fluid disease, conditions or ailments would greatly benefit many countries and areas, from those that are developed to those that are less developed. The efficient and effective diagnosis of disease, conditions, or ailments can have great impacts on individual patients and populations.